Ireland really psyched up to beat auld enemy, says Donncha

The English rugby team might wear white, but that jersey is like a red rag to a bull as far as Ireland flanker Donncha O’Callaghan is concerned.

“I suppose it’s a red rag to all of us, if we’re honest,” he admitted yesterday. “Irish people always want to do well and get a result against England. That’s definitely the case for us.

“Maybe it all goes back to Euro 88 — one of the great days of Irish results against English teams. It just lifts the place a bit and gives us bragging rights.”

O’Callaghan has had the happy experience of being on the victorious side in seven out of the last eight games against England in the Six Nations. It’s probably because of their poor recent record against us that the English players took such a visible delight from winning the World Cup warm-up match in the Aviva last August.

There was a noticeable niggle between players in that match too but off the field, at least, O’Callaghan has nothing but respect for his English opponents.

“I have been on Lions tours with some of them and the biggest thing I have always taken away from those tours is you can have perceptions of guys before you get to know them,” he said.

“I remember going over thinking half these fellas are eejits and thinking I wouldn’t like them, but coming away with the opinion they were some of the soundest guys you could meet.

“That’s definitely the case, but come Saturday they’ll all be playing in English shirts and nothing changes in regards to how you treat that.”

The sight of that white English jersey was once the source of a deep-seated inferiority complex for Irish rugby teams, but that’s no longer the case. These days Ireland expect rather than hope they can beat England.

“For years Irish teams would have gone over there, been handed a thumping, and walked away with their tails between their legs,” says O’Callaghan.

“Now we’re going over with our provinces and getting results and getting results there with our national team. You get those results on the back of getting the process right, and we know that if we do that we get wins, and if we don’t we’ll get what we got in the World Cup warm-up game and handed our ass. It comes down mainly to the pack, because when we perform we get great days against England. It involves an awful lot of work and getting the process right.”